Re: What are the signs of piracy?

I don't know about updates but you are told if your copy of Office isn't
valid in other situations, such as downloading content from Office Online. I
had only the proofing tools installed from Office 2003 so I could spell
check in OE, which wasn't enough to trigger activation, and was prevented
from downloading templates as a result. The Genuine Advantage Test told me
exactly why I failed validation.

Perhaps as a test you could try downloading a template from Office Online on
the computer and see if it passes. Although, potentially it could pass the
test and still be considered pirated software. A volume license agreement
doesn't necessarily mean you can hand out copies to your friends...

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

"Alfred Kaufmann" <al_kaufmann@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:83m753pif4isb3f1m75s7b8ec29fruv828@xxxxxxxxxx
I built a new system for a friend, installed a new Windows XP Pro OEM
and Microsoft Office 2007 Professional trial version. Microsoft
update was running smoothly and everything was updated when the system
was turned over. I explained that if she wants to install an older
version of Office she should uninstall the trial.

Of course she did not do this, installed Office 2003 and then tried to
update. The update program choked and the cpu was running at 100%
utilization.

I was called and I uninstalled Office 2003, then uninstalled Office
2007 trial then re-installed Office 2003. Everything seems to be
working but again the Microsoft update program seems to be choking.
Could this Miscrosoft's way to telling the owner to buy a legal copy?
If so, I would prefer the update program to spell it out plainly to
the owner.

The Office 2003 that she installed came on a CD-R with the key written
with a black felt pen on it. It installed easily and activated fine
too. I was told it came from a licensed Microsoft techie that has a
volume license for Office. Am I being naive if I believe this? I can
take the machine back and waste a lot of time trying to fix this but I
really don't want to waste my time trying to help a pirate.

Al




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